Pop star Lorde: Oculus Rift is like 'being in someone's filth' and 'communism'

Lorde may never be royal, but she could always simulate royalty using an Oculus Rift.

The New Zealand-based pop star recently tried the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset. The VR head-mounted display is still in its early testing phase, but people around the world are using the development kits to make stuff before the consumer version launches later this year (or early next). It will enable you to enter and explore impossible video game worlds. In an interview with the Guardian, Lorde explained that she used the cutting-edge technology with a program that simulated a recording studio. The experience gave her the sensation that she was in the room watching a musician work. She came out of her time with Oculus VR’s Rift with some interesting thoughts about it.

“It’s like being in someone’s filth,” she said. “But on a pure level it’s nice. Kind of like communism.”

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If that makes zero sense to you, that’s OK. It just means you don’t speak “pop star.” Allow me to translate: She thinks VR is cool but scary.

After trying the Rift last month, Lorde tweeted the following:

today i tried oculus rift for the first time and it was wonderful until after, when i sat brainstorming all the ways it will ruin us

Clearly, Lorde likes the idea of virtual reality, but she worries about what will happen once people actually start trying it in the real world. Just like how some people say communism is a good idea on paper but is responsible for injustice and starvation in the real world, Lorde seems to think that virtual reality is great in concept but is also capable of terrible things.

I just hope it’ll give me the chance to simulate a world where I don’t have “Royals” stuck in my head all of the time.

More information:

Oculus VR™ was founded by Palmer Luckey, self-described virtual reality enthusiast and hardware geek. The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development of their first product, the Oculus Rift, a ground-breaking vir... read more »